I’ve been working with both native Swift and React Native / Expo for years, and my experience is quite different.
Especially things like fast refresh and the component model make iteration feel much lighter in RN.
Yeah, in development things can behave a bit differently around the splash screen.
Before adding a delay, you could try hiding the splash screen after the first render has completed.
If it’s hidden earlier, you might see a blank screen until the first render is done.
Does this also happen in production builds?
One thing to check: when exactly are you hiding the splash screen? Before or after the first render?
In some cases it helps to delay hiding it just a bit longer.
Sounds like the perfect timing for it 😄
Happy to help when that moment comes.
That “we can’t complete the process right now” loop is rough…
We’ve seen similar issues during Apple enrollment where things just get stuck without any useful signal.
Happy to share what worked for us if you ever revisit it.
Apple’s developer process can be… interesting at times 😅
What did you run into?
Touch the grass 🌿
Made with React Native + WebGPU
Yes, here 🙋♂️
You can also find many more in this starter pack:
bsky.app/profile/baum...
React Native 0.85 is now available!
This release includes the New Animation Backend, selection data in TextInput onChange events, Metro TLS support, and moves the Jest preset to a dedicated package.
reactnative.dev/blog/2026/0...
That’s huge!
…I mean tiny. You know what I mean 😁
Expo Router v55 is here, and it makes native navigation UI a first-class part of routing.
♢ New Stack API
♢ Native toolbars, native tabs, dynamic platform colors
♢ Apple zoom transitions, split view
Tour + examples: expo.dev/blog/expo-router-v55-mor...
That looks so cool. It actually feels really alive.
Great! An RSS feed is a good idea -> ticket is created 😁
This setup is a must have for large apps.
Looks great!
IMO it’s actually really good. It’s been my go-to solution since 2018, and it keeps getting better all the time.
Are you thinking about developing an app, or just curious?
Oh, I’d love to give that a try! Widgets were already possible, but any simplification is always welcome.
Thanks for sharing! Curious if you also looked into the React Compiler for this kind of optimization.
Do you have a specific scenario in mind?
Would love to see what you end up building with it. These things often lead to really interesting UI patterns.
@sebastienlorber.com maybe interesting for the newsletter?
Classic!
Great post from Julian on how to create app variants with @expo.dev. There’s some neat tricks on how to declare your configs in @typescriptlang.org and also pointers on how to leverage the `extra` property too. Check it out below 👇
Illustration of three differently colored mobile app icons labeled Dev, Preview, and Production, symbolizing build variants or app flavors for separate development and release environments.
Shipping the “same” app in dev, preview, and production without release chaos?
We’re using App Flavors with Expo + EAS to keep builds cleanly separated.
Full post:
bitglow.de/blog/app-fla...
Curious how others structure their builds.
Less is more: Bundle diffing comes to EAS Update.
Instead of downloading the full bundle on every update, devices now receive a binary patch of only what changed.
Result: ~75% smaller downloads.
♦ A 3MB update drops to ~0.75MB
♦ Opt-in beta, safe fallback to full bundles
expo.dev/blog/ship-sm...
Expo SDK 55 is out 😅
RN 0.83, React 19.2 & a long list of things that make your app faster, smaller, & easier to build
♦ Hermes bytecode diffing cuts update sizes by ~75%
♦ Brownfield support gets a serious upgrade
♦ MCP now queries EAS + TestFlight crashes
Full changelog: expo.dev/changelog/sd...
Great! A lot has improved in terms of tooling and onboarding over the last years. Glad to hear it shows 🙂
One of the nice things with React Native is that you rarely need to do a full native build.
If you run into any difficulties along the way, feel free to reach out.
Haha, now imagine being a classic native developer. Move a view 2pt --> recompile 🤣
But sounds like a great test app. How’s it been so far?
Yeah, same thought here. The ecosystem size definitely matters.
Plus React usually follows quite consistent patterns which probably helps as well.
Completely agree. It’s probably not just JS, but the huge amount of React code available.
And React tends to follow clearer patterns. Other areas are often more individual, which makes suggestions probably less reliable.
How did the build go in the end? 😄
And what were you building on a Friday afternoon?
